An authentication server is a server that provides authentication for various devices. For example, an authentication server may provide authentication for devices on a network. Each device on the network may be assigned a unique name that identifies that device on the network. For authentication purposes, each device may also be assigned a secret (such as a password). Each device may provide its name and secret in order to authenticate itself (i.e., prove that it is in fact the device it purports to be). An authentication server may store the assigned names and secrets of the various devices and use them to determine whether authentications taking place on the network are successful. Authentication servers are generally known in the art. For example, two known types of authentication servers are Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) and DIAMETER servers. RADIUS and DIAMETER are also names of the protocols these servers follow. While RADIUS refers to “Dial In” it is no longer exclusively used for dial in networks and may apply to other types of networks.
As noted above, an authentication server must have the correct name and secret of a device it is to authenticate before it attempts to authenticate it. In many types of networks (such as for example, storage area networks or SANs) the authentication server is loaded with these names and secrets manually (e.g., by a user typing the names and secrets in an authentication server interface). This process can be time consuming, expensive, insecure and susceptible to user errors.